topic Coloured Activity Zones - Now Pointless? in Cameras and Doorbells

Coloured Activity Zones - Now Pointless?

Dingledooodie — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 08:04:45 GMT

I was recently forced to migrate my Nest cameras from the brilliant NEST app over to the Google HOME app.

My god but it's horrid to use.

It's a downgrade for my cameras. Just terrible. It's actually put me off sticking with the brand and I'm due upgrades soon (still on 1st Gen).

Why couldn't the NEST app capabilities simply be imported into the HOME app???

When using the NEST app the coloured Activity Zones were SO useful for reviewing particular kinds of events.

If the Activity Zone was red, a red dot would appear in my feed and I'd know that someone had been on my driveway. The path to my front door was in a green Activity Zone, so I'd know if someone had been at my door, and so on. Simple. Brilliant.

I now have to review every blasted white mark in the feed. Utterly frustrating, and reducing a brilliant product to a mediocre one, and this is just the tip of an iceberg of issues I've had since migrating.

The apps for these things are SO important. Ease and usefulness of use are paramount.

Nest Cameras are ruined for me now. I've been told the RING product apps are truly intuitive. I'll be doing some research that's for sure.

Again, Google have "fixed" something that

wasn't broken. 🫩

Re: Coloured Activity Zones - Now Pointless?

EmptyNester — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 19:34:18 GMT

Google has been trying to get nest users to switch to Google Home for over 4 years now. And if you search this forum over the last 4 years you will see literally 100s of people complaining about how badly the Google Home app is compared to the Nest App. I have been submitting feedback to Google for about 2 years asking when they are going to support the Nest activity zones in the Google Home app. And here we are October of 2025 and still no zone support. And to make matters worse Google continues to refuse to share the roadmap of what they are or not going to do... like it is some big national security secret. It is so anti-customer service for them to behave this way in my opinion.

Re: Coloured Activity Zones - Now Pointless?

Dingledooodie — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 20:38:03 GMT

Also, as I say, the Activity Zone issue is the tip of a rather large iceberg of problems I have with the dreadful Home app.

If I delete the Home App from my Pixel phone, will I be able to connect the cameras back to the Nest App?

Basically, is there ANY way back to the Nest App?

Re: Coloured Activity Zones - Now Pointless?

EmptyNester — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 00:22:27 GMT

So I have gone back and for a number of times and it always works. But you must do it soon because Google will turn this "GO BACK" feature off very soon. Just go into the GOOGLE HOME app and select the camera. When viewing the live image click on the 3-dots in the upper right corner and then SETTINGS. Scroll to the bottom and you should see an option that says "TRANSFER TO THE NEST APP"

Hope this helps.

Re: Coloured Activity Zones - Now Pointless?

Dingledooodie — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 06:20:04 GMT

I think the GO BACK feature is already gone.

I think they're 'turning off' the NEST app service at some point, hence my forced migration. 🤔

I've resisted the move for years, as I saw how bad the functionality was in the HOME app but last week I got a message that implied I had to switch. Can't remember what it said now, but I defo felt like I HAD to switch.

And, I don't see the option to "Transfer To Nest App".

Re: Coloured Activity Zones - Now Pointless?

EmptyNester — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 14:02:15 GMT

Wow,,, that is a shame it isn't showing up. I have a gen 1 Outdoor cam that I moved to the Google Nest App and I just went in and look and it is still offering the GO BACK option. Here is a screen shot....